ACTIVITIES
Bi-Annual APACE and RFM Conference Series
In 2003 the chapter organized the first Asia-Pacific Conference on Applied Electromagnetics (APACE 2003) in Shah Alam, and received more than 40 papers from several countries in the region. The Keynote Speakers were Prof. C. Christopoulos of Nottingham University and Prof. M J Lancaster from University of Birmingham.
The following year in 2004, the chapter introduced the International RF and Microwave Conference 2004 (RFM 2004), which was later to become a bi-annual series of conferences to recognize the increasing local activities in microwave technology. This was due to the fact that a large portion of papers presented at APACE2003 was from the rf and microwaves area. RFM 2004 was very well received, with more than 90 papers presented over 4 parallel sessions, 4 Keynote Speakers, 2 Tutorials and attended by almost 170 participants.
The APACE and RFM series of meetings are now held in alternate years by the chapter. By having these two conferences, it is hoped that a close academia-industry relationship can be nurtured to serve as a catalyst to spur growth in these important areas. Owing to the fact that most of the Executive Committee Members of the chapter are from the academia, the conference secretariats are rotated among the local public universities, namely Universiti Teknologi MARA, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia and Universiti Industri Selangor. These series of conferences are now major events in the region, and have contributed to the success of the chapter, which culminated in it being awarded Malaysia’s best performing IEEE Chapter in 2005.